Scoppe column: Lengyel recalls movie, reality

By Rick Scoppe/The Daily News-Sports Editor

Published: Tuesday, August 20, 2013 at 11:00 AM.

“We had to evaluate everything,” Lengyel recalled.

Personable and friendly, Lengyel is more than just a retired football coach and athletic director. He’s a storyteller, and I could have sat for hours listening to him reflect and remember about his time at
Marshall
.

A sampling of his memories:

— On how he managed to win two games that first season.

“We knew that we could out-condition people. We could out-discipline them. We could be tough, but we were going to be inexperienced. You could fault us for inexperience, but you could never fault us for determination, physical conditioning, etc.

“And then we would insert gambles. We would pass from punt formation. … We stunted and we gambled. You never knew what we were going to do. We never had a pattern.”

As you sit and talk with Jack Lengyel about his memories of taking over the Marshall football program after the tragic 1970 airplane crash that killed 75 players, fans and school officials, for a brief moment it almost feels he was describing a movie and not reality.

Actually, the 78-year-old Lengyel was doing both.

Yes, there was a movie about the crash of Flight 932, a twin-engine 95-seat Southern Airways DC-9 that left Kinston at 6:38 p.m. on Nov. 14, 1970, for an expected 52-minute flight back to Huntington, W.Va.

That move, entitled “We Are Marshall,” recounts the crash and its aftermath and how Lengyel and many others helped the football program, the university and the community recover from an almost unimaginable tragedy.

“We never thought that would ever be turned into a movie,” Lengyel said before addressing the Dixon Football Gridiron Club on Saturday night.

Lengyel has hundreds, if not thousands, of stories of his time at Marshall, many obviously focused on that first season, which began with his hiring just over a month before spring practice was set to start.

As he hit town, Lengyel had just three varsity players — three, all of whom had been hurt and hadn’t make the trip to East Carolina.

“We had to evaluate everything,” Lengyel recalled.

Personable and friendly, Lengyel is more than just a retired football coach and athletic director. He’s a storyteller, and I could have sat for hours listening to him reflect and remember about his time at Marshall.

A sampling of his memories:

— On how he managed to win two games that first season.

“We knew that we could out-condition people. We could out-discipline them. We could be tough, but we were going to be inexperienced. You could fault us for inexperience, but you could never fault us for determination, physical conditioning, etc.

“And then we would insert gambles. We would pass from punt formation. … We stunted and we gambled. You never knew what we were going to do. We never had a pattern.”

— On that first spring practice.

“I told every player, ‘I’m going to put you in a spot and if you don’t like where you are, come and see me because I’m not sure. I haven’t seen enough of you, but let’s say you’re the big tackle and now we’re making you play end and you want to play tackle. I may tell you, ‘I’m sorry son, I don’t have anybody else, you’ve got to play.’ Or I may say, ‘OK.’

“I gave them great latitude to put the team together.”

— On Marshall beating Xavier 15-13 in its first home game on the final play.

“Xavier was favored by three touchdowns. That was just a great ballgame because of how it played out. We scored the winning touchdown with no time on the clock. In fact, the quarterback napped the ball with one second to go and the gun goes off.

“We throw a bootleg throw-back pass and Jack Crabtree levels the backside halfback and he (freshman Terry Gardner) walks into the end zone and they just came out of the stadium and filled the field.”

— On the movie, “We Are Marshall.”

“Overall, it was pretty good. (But) the last play, they run a bootleg on the 13-yard line into the sideline. I said that’s the dumbest play. I said if they ever see that play in the game, they’ll say that’s the dumbest football coach in America.

“Now what we did was fake the bootleg … and threw back to the halfback that came out here to the wide side of the field. … They said they’d correct it. They never did. What they did in the film (is) the ball is in the air, flashback; ball’s in the air, flashback;

“By the time they got to that you don’t even remember what the play was.”

— On being a “consultant” for the movie.

“I was just like any other movie consultant. They don’t listen to a damn thing you tell them.”

And then there were Lengyel’s recruiting stories. He said he went to MoellerHigh School in Cincinnati, which had two players at Marshall who died in the plane crash. At the time Moeller was coached by Gerry Faust, who would later go on to Notre Dame.

Lengyel said Moeller had 12 players sign “big-time scholarships.”

“Gerry said you can’t touch any of these 12,” Lengyel said, “but he said, ‘I got this kicker.” I said, ‘Geez, Jerry, I need linemen. I can’t take a kicker.’ He said, ‘Well, he’s a good one.’”

You can guess what happened, can’t you?

“The kicker goes on to Dayton,” Lengyel said. Wait. Wait. “And he beats us with a field goal.”

Did Faust give Lengyel an I-told-you-so telephone call?

“No,” Lengyel said, “I did not get a call.”

Sports editor Rick Scoppe can be reached via email at rick.scoppe@jdnews.com or by calling 910-219-8471.